This invention is in the field of devices for picking up loose articles lying on the ground.
Golf practice ranges are in wide use and one of the problems in their operation is the retrieving or gathering of used balls for reuse, which balls are scattered over a wide area. Devices have been used for gathering such balls by merely dragging the apparatus over the range area. Some such devices comprise a multiplicity of rotatable discs which pinch the golf balls between them and lift them from the ground into a receiver. Such devices are complicated and expensive to construct and not entirely dependable in operation. Other proposals suggested the use of strips of material arranged in parallel spaced relation adapted to be dragged over the ground. The leading ends of the strips are held above the tops of golf balls on the ground and are narrow at their forward ends to permit golf balls to pass therebetween onto the upper surfaces of the strips whose more rearward portions are sufficiently wide to inhibit passage of the balls downwardly between adjacent edges. A rotary brush is proposed for sweeping balls off the strips into a container. The strips are either flexible straps or structures formed of relatively stiff wire. Examples of such devices are shown in the U.S. Pat. Nos. to Shoemaker 3,362,551 and Recker 3,595,000.